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tions, will these rules also the authors in The Digital 96 percent of our genes also happens to be run by
apply to musical mae- Ape look at how usage of with our nearest relative, an authoritarian regime.
stros, if they use similar tools has been intrinsi- the chimpanzee — and 70 Which is why the au-
inputs to exalt their music cally linked to human life, percent with a packet of thors argue that going for-
experience, or students to predating even the arrival fish fingers. The unique ward, “discussions of the
help mug better before an of homo sapiens by nearly four percent that makes us dangers and opportunities
exam? three million years. How human will never com- presented by the world
The inspiration for the it’s not just the tools that pletely outwit the ‘animal’ of intelligent machines
book, the authors tell us, have evolved, but by using 96 percent,” they write. should be as central to our
comes from Desmond them through the ages — And even though we are cultural life as arguments
Morris’s The Naked Ape, say, from stone-age to the using super-fast, hyper- about other global chal-
which was first published digital age — they have re- complex, immensely pow- lenges.” The digital ape is
in 1957. The British zo- jigged our neural circuitry, erful tools, we have in turn still an ape and the public
ologist’s ground-breaking forcing us to evolve with become enslaved by digital cannot allow its tools to
book was critical in under- them. machines. We are also at evolve too quickly to be
standing our primate ori- Today, according to the the risk of being con- controlled and understood
gins, and for its deep dive authors, the digital ape has trolled by algorithms and by a select few.
into humans as a species come a long way almost ceaseless information and JAIRAJ SINGH (The Book
in comparison with other too quickly, and is still misinformation, especially Review)
animals. In similar vein, accelerating. “We share dangerous if your country

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